Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti confronts referee after failure to award late penalty against Manchester United

Carlo Ancelotti has angrily questioned the “personality, courage and
character” of referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco after Chelsea were denied a
blatant penalty in the final minute of last night’s Champions League
quarter-final defeat to Manchester United.

With Chelsea trailing 1-0, Ramires broke clear on goal but was clearly tripped by Patrice Evra, an offence that was missed by Mallenco but also his extra official behind the goal.

Unsurprisingly, there was no sympathy from Sir Alex Ferguson, who accused Fernando Torres of diving in a separate penalty appeal and said that he felt no guilt over the Ramires incident.

“Everyone knows it was clear,” said Ancelotti, who confronted Mallenco after the game. “The problem is I know it’s sometimes not easy to give the penalty in the last minute, and you need to have personality, courage and character.

“Not always do referees have these kind of skills. I’m disappointed but this is the result. This is the past. It was not just the referee, but the assistant was in the right position to decide that was a penalty.

“I said to the referee that it was a penalty and he needed to whistle. He said nothing. No answer.”

Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, said: “I think everybody saw what happened but the most important person did not see it. We lost the game and we have left ourselves a mountain to climb but we have to do it.”

Ferguson believes that his team have been the victims of numerous injustices against Chelsea and said that the late let-off over Ramires had been Manchester United’s first break at Stamford Bridge since 2004.

“It looked as if the boy (Ramires) made the most of it,” said Ferguson. “Someone said it could have been a penalty. It was the first penalty decision we’ve had in seven years, so we’re due one. But I don’t feel guilty about that at all. It was a 50-50 from where I was.”

Manchester United are now awaiting the results of a scan to Rafael’s knee, but Ferguson said that Anderson would return for Saturday’s match against Fulham.

The Football Association will also reveal the outcome this morning of Wayne Rooney’s appeal against a two-match ban for swearing into a television camera during the 4-2 victory at West Ham last Saturday. A disciplinary commission sat on Wednesday to consider the 25-year-old’s submission that the two-match suspension was ‘clearly excessive' but the FA agreed to delay the announcement until 10am on Thursday.

Ferguson claimed last night that he did not know whether Rooney would be available to play against Fulham. He also played down talk of repeating Manchester United’s treble of 1999 when they won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

“I’ve never thought about it,” he said. “We’re in every competition and we’ll try our best. That’s the attitude of Manchester United.”